How to grow human spare organs inside pigs

THE chimeras of ancient mythology were monstrous combinations of lions, snakes and goats. We may soon have something almost as startling. A team of biologists is paving the way for growing entirely human organs inside pigs. The aim is to duplicate inside a host animal the kidney, say, of someone needing an organ transplant.

Experiments building up to such organ farms have been carried out in pigs, mice and rats in Japan. So far, regulations there have made the next stage impossible – using human stem cells to make human-animal chimeras. But last week, the Japanese government announced new rules which should allow Hiromitsu Nakauchi and his group at the University of Tokyo to grow animals that are partly human.

"We are ready to do the experiment," says Nakauchi. On the surface, his concept is relatively simple (see ...

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